The present invention relates to a parking brake mechanism for vehicles, more particularly to a parking brake mechanism including a cam plate free to rotate with respect to a foot-operated parking brake pedal lever and adapted to be connected with a brake control cable.
Conventionally, a vehicle is provided with a parking brake mechanism including a foot-operated parking brake pedal lever for tensioning a brake control cable connected therewith and setting the parking brake. The brake pedal lever is displaced from a retracted position where the parking brake is released to a depressed or brake-engaged position where the parking brake is set. This type of the parking brake mechanism is described, for example, in the disclosures of Japanese Laid-Open (KOKAI) Specification No. 249747/1990, U.S. Pat. No. 4,612,823 or U.S. Pat. No. 4,841,798.
The conventional parking brake mechanism also has the cable which is connected with the brake pedal lever and a wheel brake assembly and wound around a drum portion formed on the brake pedal lever through a cable tension self-adjusting spring. This spring is useful in automatically compensating for lack of cable tension or taking up cable slack due to wear to maintain uniform cable tension. However, when the cable connected with the brake pedal lever through the cable tension self-adjusting spring is to be connected with the wheel brake assembly, the large amount of external force adequate to pull the cable toward the wheel brake assembly by overcoming the biasing force of the cable tension self-adjusting spring is always necessary. This is inconvenient for the works of cable connection. Consequently, it is eagerly desired not to necessitate such the large external force when the cable is connected with the wheel brake assembly.